


Talk

by longkissgnite



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Just two hets sitting on the beach chit chatting, Mention of blood, but for the most part just calm talking, mention if suicidal thoughts, mention of hallucinations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-16
Updated: 2020-09-16
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:48:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26488954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/longkissgnite/pseuds/longkissgnite
Summary: A small little thing of these two idiots working on talking through and about problems instead of letting them sit and stew and having fights.
Relationships: Annie Cresta/Finnick Odair
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11
Collections: Canon Odesta





	Talk

**Author's Note:**

> This discusses the events of my last one shot Deserving although you don’t Need to read it to get this one probably just !!! Will make it a more fuller story if you do but all up to you! I wrote it so it’s clear Enough without all that.

⠀⠀They were getting better at /talking/.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀Annie didn’t realize this was something that needed to be worked on, but it so clearly was. They talked, or course. They knew each other, obviously. But as time went on, clearly they needed to address things more, to talk about the /bad/ more. Not to fight, not to have her huff and leave, or sometimes he silently resigned.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀They were getting better at it though. Sometimes it was slow to the catch, but they were getting there.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀Like now, two days after she had an episode they were finally talking about it.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀She was folded on his lap, sitting on the beach just out of the tides’ reach. This was safe, they were close to the comfort of the water and he held her safe from drowning. No, she wasn’t at any risk, but she couldn’t help but think of scenarios where she /could/ drown since her games. So this was safe, and he didn’t mind a bit of extra precautions, especially since it meant he got to hold her.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”Annie,” he started carefully, she simply hummed, and he chuckled at the lack of response. “Annie, come on, look at me.”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀She shook her head, smiling to herself. “Comfortable.” She stated, nuzzling herself against his chest more, content there.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀Of course she knew what was coming, she knew why it was coming, and she knew it had to come. However she just didn’t want to talk about it. It wasn’t about not wanting to upset herself again, that she could handle. It was because she didn’t want to risk the argument, because she thought what she thought, and he had a different idea.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀Although she supposed that’s why they had to talk, to find some middle ground, to avoid what happened from happening again.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀So she moved, adjusted herself to be sitting up in his lap now and looking at him. It amused her as she realized he hadn’t asked her to move again, she took a few moments to move and yet he was so patient. He was silly, cute.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀What hadn’t amused her was the fact that they even had to wait a few days to even talk about things. That they had to so they could avoid another upset, in this case avoid her putting his hands around her /neck/. That frustrated her, but she supposed it was better to stop avoiding the subject now, to get it over with.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”You trust me.” It was a statement, no room for question.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀Still, she answered it like it was one. “Real.” Firm, with a nod to sell the point. “I trust you.”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”You trust me not to hurt you.” He added, waiting patiently.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀And quickly came the “real,” followed by a firm nod.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀It was becoming a routine, asking something of the other and having it confirmed. It was the easiest way, even in talkative moments, to get through to each other. The words weren’t new, just the phrase, but they were ingrained, could reach them easily in dark and lost moments.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”Do you know what happened? The other day?” He asked carefully, and he sighed when she shook her head. “Do you remember what happened before I got there?”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀To that she did nod, but she was quiet a moment longer as she worked the words together. “I thought I saw blood,” she started carefully, although she didn’t know /why/ she was going so slowly. Maybe not to upset herself, or more likely maybe to be able to watch his eyes as she spoke, to make sure she didn’t upset him. “But I didn’t, and I knew that, but it made me wonder why I thought I did.”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀There was upset in his eyes, but nothing that’d make him cry, just that he was /sad/. She supposed she could understand and handle that, but she didn’t like it.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”Because the games made you sick,” he said gently, holding her face as he spoke. “Remember, like how Mags has said, it’s /just/ because your head is sick, but it gets better.”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”Why would they make me sick?” She asked dumbly, she’d had the explanation before, but it never hurt to review. “Why would it if I didn’t deserve to be sick?”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”Do I deserve to have the nightmares I do? Did Mags deserve to be sick?” Finnick asked, and she shook her head quickly. “Bad things sometimes happen, even if we don’t deserve them to, that’s all.”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”But that’s not fair.”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀She sounded like a dumb child, a dumb child who didn’t understand anything. She felt that way too, balling her hands in his shirt and wishing she had let go of him before she got so frustrated. /This/ wasn’t fair to him, all he did was try to help her, and she responded like a child.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀But his hands were gentle, moving to unball hers and hold them delicately in hers. “Hey, it’s okay, Annie.” He whispered, kissing her forehead as well, the sun was fading and they were way past the workmen on the shore, this was okay. “It’s not fair, you’re right.”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀She wanted to move her hands back, to maybe yank at her hair and hold herself tight in a ball while she cried. Instead, she nodded slowly, repeated the words under her breath. It’s not fair. She did so until it clicked a little, until the crushing overwhelm that had so suddenly built up inside her came crashing down.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀She /liked/ the tide, she likes when it came up on the shore and brushed things away, washed away shapes in the sand and brought everything back into the water.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀She liked sitting near the tide, listening to it crash against the sand as she felt him firmly holding her. All the bad energy in her swept away, all that was left was a small girl. Not a child, but a girl who was small. All that was left was a confused Annie who was slowly getting it.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”That’s right, dove, it’s not fair, that’s real.” He whispered gently, letting go of her hands and allowing her to clutch onto him again. “Just like it’s not fair that others died, that others keep dying.” He went on, now he was the one watching her eyes closely.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀She wondered what he saw in her eyes, what secrets they so easily gave away.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”I was meant to die.” She states, but she followed it with a question. “Real or not real?”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀The way he had tensed, and the way he had immediately relaxed, broke her heart. She wondered if he saw that in her eyes. He took too long to respond, but he normally did when she gave him the more difficult questions. She was used to his slowness by now, she knew he just didn’t want to be wrong.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”That’s real,” he said quietly, looking wrecked just by those two words. “But no one is meant to live through the games, no one as good as you is.”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀She nodded, looked at him a long moment before laying her head on his shoulder. “Then why am I alive?”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”Because you’re a damn good swimmer,” he said with a small smile, or she at least assumed he was smiling. He /always/ smiled when he cursed around her, he knew she didn’t like it and that’s why he did it.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀She didn’t have the energy to scold him though, instead she smiled herself, moved the angle of her head to look up at him and saw that he was in fact smiling. “I learned from the best.”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”Yeah,” he laughed softly, leaning his head down to kiss where he could at her face (his target turning out to be her nose). “And that’s why you won, dumb luck, no one could win how they /wanted/ you to by then, you know that, you know they wanted a killer for a winner.”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀She nods, “and I’m not a killer?” She asks, the answer was obvious she knew, but she needed to hear it.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”Real.” He said firmly, hugging her closer. “Not at all, you couldn’t even hurt a fly.”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”Well a fly’s done nothing wrong, I don’t understand why anyone hurts them, they just… you know, fly.” She said quickly, frowning when he laughed. “What’s so funny?”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”That’s exactly what I mean,” He said through laughter, and got himself to stop before he continued. “That’s why it’s so unfair for you, because you’re too good to be one of their victors.”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀She nodded, settled against him and repeated his words in her head. That all made sense, she understood that.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”I’m sorry I asked you to kill me,” she whispers into his chest, balling her fists again but not aggressively, only to hold securely.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”It’s okay, I know you didn’t mean it.” He said gently, rubbing her back carefully, “I’m not upset with you, just as long as you know you’re safe with me.”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”I’m safe with you.” She repeats back, looking up to see him smiling. “I’m always going to be safe with you, and you’re always going to be safe with me.” She moved enough to kiss his cheek, content enough to lean her head only on his shoulder after that.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”I’m very safe with you,” he confirmed, kissing the top of her head.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀This was easy, all of it was. Even the hard parts were easy. They just had to get in the new rhythm of talking through things, hopefully in the future sooner after they happened, but this was still better. This was /much/ better than a fight, she’d take being held on the beach over that any day.


End file.
